Well I finally got fed up with experiencing many of the complaints people have had about the Pre, and bought a used iPhone 3GS for cheap. As much as the concept of the Pre and many of the features in WebOS are very appealing, there was just too many disadvantages in keeping the phone. I figured as possibly my last post here I would leave some thoughts for comparison between the Pre and iPhone 3GS (in the form of pros and cons):

Palm Pre Pro's:
- Notifications: I find that the notifications are very well done in WebOS, and I actually quite miss the blinking LED to indicate that you have something new to check. They're intuitive, non-intrusive (if you're doing something else) and all-in-all very well done.

- Hardware Keyboard: I can type about 65 WPM on the Pre, and even though it's a bit small I have no problem hitting the right key >99% of the time.

- Small form factor: I like the pre's form factor. Touchscreen for most uses, and keyboard for texting/emailing. Fits in my pocket nicely

- Push email works with my ualberta email address. I get an email on my phone as fast as I get a text message (for some reason, even though I have push notifications on my iPhone, it doesn't get the emails instantly)

- User interface: UI is done well nice to have a full-fledged background when not opening up an app etc.

- Touchstone: Magnetically inductive charging is the way to go.

- Multitasking: WebOS multitasking >> iPhone multitasking.

Palm Pre Cons:

- Battery life: The battery life is horrendous. I feel like I have to constantly be charging this phone or it will die. The idle state seems to draw significantly more power on the Pre than on the iPhone. Maybe a software optimization issue?

- Reliability: This is from both a hardware and software perspective. The hardware quality is noticeably quite poor - I have had the ghost headset issue, loose battery issue, and a very slight oreo (not enough to make me replace it, but enough to annoy me). From a software perspective, Uberkernel certainly helps (as does the overclocking itself) but there were still crashes at least once a week. Before uberkernel it was more like once per day. Would have been nice if by default it only crashed once a month or less.

- Boot time: It takes 3 mins 30 secs to boot this phone from shutdown. Somewhat comparable to most smartphones, but the iPhone boots in 30 seconds.

- Flash memory: it's like 700-800 KB/s write speed, and there's only 8GB. The iPhone 3GS came out at the exact same time as the Pre, and its flash speed is double capacity and way faster as well.

iPhone Pros

- Battery life: I have a January 2010 iPhone (used) and the battery life is phenomenal. I'm used to having like 10% when I get home from work (I use my phone a fair bit at work, with moderate use) but even using the iPhone more than I did the Pre I have at least 50%. The idle time seems to suck less juice than the Pre (possibly the biggest difference?), and of course the larger capacity helps as well.

- Snappiness of interface: Even though I maybe like the interface of WebOS better (although it's a bit of a tossup, I think both iOS and WebOS are well designed), it feels laggy at stock speed on the Pre. The 800 MHz patch takes that away, but should it really be necessary to overclock in order to make the experience of the phone seem snappy?

- Apps: This one is pretty obvious. There's an app for everything (and more). And while I do appreciate the homebrew community behind the Pre who make more apps than are available in the App Catalog, it still pales in comparison with the ginormous number of apps in the App Store.

- Music/Video Player: More stable, probably software. The iPhone's iPod capability never has issues (at least that I've experienced), while for example the Pre's Music player often misses audio on very large (> 20 min) songs.

iPhone Cons:

- Size: It's a bit bigger than the Pre obviously, and doesn't fit quite as nicely into a pocket. I'm worried it's more likely to get scratched than a Pre would. I do like how it's a bit skinner and according to Wikipedia the Pre and the iPhone 3GS are both 135 grams.

- Push notifications don't work on my email. No idea why.

- Lack of hardware keyboard: I do miss it, although the soft keyboard on the iPhone is very well done.

- Multitasking in iOS 4: It's very poorly implemented in my opinion. I will probably disable it at some point via Jailbreak.

On a side note, I do like the fact that I can do voice/data on the 3G GSM network (not possible on Bell's CDMA Palm Pre). I am guessing some of you may say that the Palm Pre's Homebrew community is better but just google "iPhone Jailbreak". I'd say that overall the Jailbreak community is much larger than the Pre homebrew community, but not likely based on percentage. Anyways part of the reason I posted this is because at this point I have to say now that I have an iPhone I doubt I'd ever want to switch back, and basically the whole time I had a Pre, I wanted something different (because of all the issues I had with it). My biggest reason in getting the Pre was because it was free on a 3-yr contract and Bell also discounted the smartphone rate $10/month; hence cost was the biggest reason I got the Pre rather than the iPhone.

What I'm wondering is whether many of you would, assuming identical cost, get the Pre instead of the iPhone. Other thoughts?

Apple products might be great on the hardware side but they charge for everything! They lack the innovation they used to have...implementation of multitasking is an example, antenna issue is another. You have to jailbreak (warranty void) to do a lot of the things you might like to on a smartphone, and the software is locked down too much (ex: couldn't even change a background wallpaper until iOS4...are you serious!?!). Plus in the US, iPhone is only available on AT&T, and that is definitely the deal breaker. GSM with talk/data is nice but I like CDMA for clearer calls, and I pay $120 a month on Sprint (family plan) which on AT&T would cost me about $160 (I checked) for half the minutes and only 2GB of data.

Given the OP's location I don't think the iPhone's current American network limitation is going to play a role in this decision. CDMA and HSPA have identical coverage in Alberta.

Staeit...looking forward I would feel totally comfortable telling you to hitch your horse to webOS. That said it's always hard to guess what phones will be picked up in Canada or when they will be picked up.

I think you had a defective pre though. No way should it crash daily or even weekly. Something may have been running in the background hogging your ram and draining your battery too.

I want my phone to automatically do searches (deals, news, etc.), updates (weather, traffic, flight updates, etc.) and reminders (location, setting, time, etc.) for me in the background with a good notification system and ios is lacking in those apps so I would switch to android if webos was not around.

Apple products might be great on the hardware side but they charge for everything!

As has been pointed out in another thread, you might pay more for an Apple product but when you can resell it at the end of your contract (which I realize doesn't apply to the OP), for as much or more than you paid in the first place, it really takes the sting out.

I just re-sold via eBay my 3g - two years old - for much more than I paid (on contract) originally, and that more than covered the cost of my new iphone.

Good post. For me it's the multitasking. Plain and simple. I use my pre for work, and I need multitasking and great notifications. I love being able to write an email, jump on the internet, suddenly take a call, then as I'm talking decide to download a podcast and then go back to the email, and check my calendar while I'm on a call, all at the same time, and all so fluidly.

The iphone is a great phone. But the os is at version 4 and it still hasn't mastered multitasking. I"m really looking forward to WebOS 2.0, and I can only imagine what WebOS 4.0 will bring.

Good post. For me it's the multitasking. Plain and simple. I use my pre for work, and I need multitasking and great notifications. I love being able to write an email, jump on the internet, suddenly take a call, then as I'm talking decide to download a podcast and then go back to the email, and check my calendar while I'm on a call, all at the same time, and all so fluidly.

I've been on AT&T for about six years, never had an iPhone, never wanted one (briefly resolve wavered when IP4 first came out, but it was a momentary thing. My preplus is on the same network, with the same pros and cons as the iPhone.

What can I say? I've had an irrational hatred of Apple since the Commodore 64 / Apple II days.

Good post. For me it's the multitasking. Plain and simple. I use my pre for work, and I need multitasking and great notifications. I love being able to write an email, jump on the internet, suddenly take a call, then as I'm talking decide to download a podcast and then go back to the email, and check my calendar while I'm on a call, all at the same time, and all so fluidly.

The iphone is a great phone. But the os is at version 4 and it still hasn't mastered multitasking. I"m really looking forward to WebOS 2.0, and I can only imagine what WebOS 4.0 will bring.

Good post. For me it's the multitasking. Plain and simple. I use my pre for work, and I need multitasking and great notifications. I love being able to write an email, jump on the internet, suddenly take a call, then as I'm talking decide to download a podcast and then go back to the email, and check my calendar while I'm on a call, all at the same time, and all so fluidly.

The iphone is a great phone. But the os is at version 4 and it still hasn't mastered multitasking. I"m really looking forward to WebOS 2.0, and I can only imagine what WebOS 4.0 will bring.

I don't webos 2.0 will have alot of innovation.. I'm sorry, but i really don't.. I think it will mostly be fixing bugs, improving current innovations, and adding missing features like voice apis...

I don't webos 2.0 will have alot of innovation.. I'm sorry, but i really don't.. I think it will mostly be fixing bugs, improving current innovations, and adding missing features like voice apis...

Heathen! It will revolutionize the phone, give us 2 weeks of battery life on full usage, auto balance your checkbook, run starcraft 2, start your car when you get close, and... rumor has it if you get the goggles accessory it will have 3D Visuals.

I can understand your decision to leave the Pre for an iPhone. I had an iPhone 3G back when it first released. I loved that phone for sure, but I just felt that iOS lacked too many simple, yet key functions. Since I left, I see Apple added some type of multitasking, cut, copy, and paste, and added folders to the springboard. The apps were great and ram smoothly and the iPod part of it was nice.

I'm hoping HP/Palm release a nice phone within the next 6 months. As long as a new WebOS device comes, I plan on staying with it though.If not, I can see myself going back to the iPhone.

actally it doesn't have an app for everything...my girlfriend has an ipad and I tried to download a pocast app. It doesn't exist for iOS..they have mediafly, but it's locked down....there wasn't.

I must say that the iOS software is incredibly cumbersome and annoying to use. Mabe it's cus I'm use to webOS, but trying to use more than one app is frustrating. I can't see myself switching to an iOS device until they get their multitasking up to par first of all.

I've never experienced any device, let alone a phone, that keeps me excited like my pre. (original, day 1 sprint owner) I'm about to go get a pre plus and hack it to run on sprint. You just can't get away with that stuff on iOS without risking bricking/voiding warranty.